


The Amazing Race

by gladdecease



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-05 00:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The idea for the races started the first time Mistgun came into the guild for a job after Gray joined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Amazing Race

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wintersjuly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintersjuly/gifts).



The idea for the races started the first time Mistgun came into the guild for a job after Gray joined. As happened whenever Mistgun stopped by, most of the guild fell asleep before he arrived and only awoke after he left. Lying on the floor, blinking at the ceiling, Gray wondered how he'd gotten there.

"Oh, don't worry about that," an older guild member laughed. "That's just Mistgun, coming in to pick a job from the second floor."

Gray had wondered aloud, he realized. He sat up, looking at the second floor. Up to now, he'd never thought much of it - everything he liked was on the first floor, so he didn't have any need to look elsewhere - but now he was curious. "What's on the second floor?" he asked, but the guild member had lost his interest in one of the large mugs Gray wasn't allowed to have yet.

"The really tough jobs," breathed a voice from behind Gray. He recognized the voice, and wrinkled his nose automatically. _Natsu_.

There was something about Natsu that Gray just did not like. Maybe it had something to do with his brash personality, or the tough guy attitude, or his fire-based magic. It was probably the magic - Gray, a user of ice-magic and a somewhat gullible child, felt that fire magic was the worst kind there could be. Ignoring their similarities in every other way, which is always easy for young boys to do, Gray had decided they were opposites, and therefore rivals, on sight. (Mentally, of course - he wasn't insane. Natsu, on the other hand, had taken one look at Gray's magic and openly declared them rivals.)

No, Gray didn't like Natsu at all. But he couldn't deny that when the guy knew stuff, he really knew it. That was why, rather than ignoring Natsu's comment and finding someone else to ask, Gray turned and said, "What?"

Natsu wasn't looking at him - he was looking up. At the second floor. He pointed, nearly jabbing Gray in the eye, and said, "All the toughest jobs are posted up there. Only the best mages can get those jobs."

Rolling his eyes, Gray filled in the line he knew was coming. _And one day, I'm going to be one of them!_ How annoying. How predictable. How -

Natsu pumped a fist excitedly. "And one day I'm going to be one of them! Yeah!"

How _infuriating_. Gray snorted, crossing his arms and looking away. "Only if I do first."

Natsu turned on him, having taken offense at Gray's claim. "Oh yeah?"

Gray took offense at Natsu's rebuttal in turn. "Yeah!"

As their shouting grew louder, a few curious eyes glanced their way. Most of them, spotting who was shouting at whom, chuckled to themselves and turned back to their drink. Gray hadn't been here very long, but already he and Natsu were famous for their raucous fighting. One pair of eyes spotted them and rather than turn away, narrowed. The eyes narrowed more and more the louder the boys got, and the mage the eyes belonged to walked closer and closer to the fighting boys. The moment the fight turned from words to fists, that mage was standing right behind them.

Sensing a sudden chill, Natsu and Gray turned. As one, they yelped and jumped away from the danger of Erza's glare. She'd made it clear the minute she spotted them fighting that she wouldn't accept such actions from them. Something about guilds and friends and families and family shouldn't fight - Gray didn't remember the exact words. He remember the gist of it: Erza is scary. Erza doesn't want you to fight. _Listen to Erza_.

And normally he kept to that, but sometimes Natsu got unbearable and he just _had_ to -

Well. As long as she didn't find out, it was like the fighting had never happened. In theory.

As they broke out into cold sweats, Natsu and Gray each wrapped an arm around the other's shoulder. Their faked smiles shook as Erza remained impassive. At long last, she looked away, sighing. "What are you boys arguing about this time?"

Natsu pointed up at the second floor again, once again nearly jabbing Gray's eye out. "Who's going to get up there first. Gray said he can beat me there, but I -"

"I _will_ get up there first!" Gray shouted, turning on Natsu. "If you think that -"

"- I can do -"

"- no you can't -"

Erza coughed, and the boys froze in place. Having gotten their attention, she asked, "Why not have a race?"

Natsu blinked. "A race?"

"See who gets there first. Then you'll know, and you'll stop arguing about it." Erza shrugged, smiling benevolently.

And yeah, when she said it like that it did sound like they'd been talking about speed, but that hadn't been what the argument was about. They'd been talking about skill, and getting stronger, and who would be faster in that way. A race wouldn't -

"Let's do it!" Natsu jumped in the air, grinning widely. Gray felt his jaw drop - due to shock that Natsu had so quickly forgotten what they were fighting about - but forced it back up with some effort. Now that he thought about it, speed had a valuable place in a mage's arsenal. He could still prove who was stronger by winning this race.

"Alright," he said, smirking wickedly.

Erza looked between the smiling boys, and considered her job well done.

Yes, that was how the idea was formed. The implementation didn't go so nearly as smoothly.

The first race went something like this:

Erza: Three, two, one - hey! Natsu, you start at go, not one!  
Natsu: Ha ha ha! I'm gonna win!  
Gray: That's cheating! He's cheating!

And the second one wasn't much better. There was no starting time cheating, but there was a mage coming down the stairs, job in hand, as Natsu and Gray were running up. Nobody crashed into anybody, but the race came to a screeching halt.

The fifth race, Gray nearly ran into a mage holding a platter full of drinks. The eighth race, Gray tried to use magic to cut down his time, only for Natsu to slip on the ice. The fifteenth time, they both used their magic and left the floor all wet, and the Master called off the race to make them clean it up. And on it went.

Meanwhile, the race Gray had intended for them to have went on. Both of them already highly knowledgeable in their respective fields, the only way to improve was through practice - training and jobs. As they got older, their strength increased. Erza found herself having to pull apart arguments less often, leaving it to the Master to pull apart their "sparring sessions". Their fights became famous for the destruction as much as the noise, and the jobs they took grew harder and harder.

Eventually, they were both able to make it up to the second floor in giant leaps and bounds, through magic or footwork alone. And, eventually, they were both skilled on a level a full twenty foot tall staircase above other mages.

Who got there first, though, was a question they never quite agreed on. Not even with Erza's stare used against them.


End file.
